


minding the gaps

by axilet



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Ignoct Week, Open Ending, Pitioss Ruins (Final Fantasy XV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-11
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 21:43:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14902580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/axilet/pseuds/axilet
Summary: Ep Ignis, verse 2. Ignis explores the ruins of Solheim in search of hope. In Pitioss, he finds only ghosts.





	minding the gaps

**Author's Note:**

> For ignoct week. Prompts used: time travel, supernatural.

He misses Noct terribly, of course, but a year is a long time to begin losing one’s mind about it. But yet Ignis could have sworn that he saw the familiar figure of his prince dart across one of the overhead beams before vanishing from sight.

He stands bemused for a long moment, staring hard upward, before shaking his head and moving on. He’s here on a mission _,_ after all.

* * *

 

When he falls for the first time, his thoughts dissolve into inarticulate panic even though he _knows_ he’s going to be absolutely fine. The air shudders around him, an unpleasant constriction like a throat closing and he’s abruptly back on his feet on solid ground, trying hard to pretend he’s _not_ hyperventilating. A minute later he successfully calms enough to gain his bearings--he’s at the entrance of the room with the odd skull-adorned contraption, moving back and forth endlessly through the void.

“Ignis?”

The voice of his Highness, clear as a bell. Ignis’ heart seizes and he jerks his head, searching. And sees -

\- that well-loved, unmistakable form, feet braced apart like a captain on a strange ship on the rounded surface of the skull, receding into the dark -

“Noct!” Ignis screams.

Noctis doesn’t react or look back, and a second later, he’s gone.

* * *

 

He should leave and tell _someone else_ about this - someone who isn’t clearly emotionally compromised or slowly going insane, for instance - but Ignis persists in pursuing the royal apparition. He tries a few more times to communicate - calls and pleas to wait, to turn around - to never leave again. It hurts more and more each time he’s ignored, and eventually he stops.

He knows from Noct’s previous visit here that time runs oddly in Pitioss - when he misses his step and _returns,_ he isn’t merely being teleported spatially but temporally as well, the hands on his watch constantly jumping in defiance of all laws of science and common sense. Is that why he can see Noct, when he’s supposed to be inside the Crystal? Is this an echo from the past, or the future, or some other world? Ignis’ head pounds. It’s been hours, days, or only twenty minutes. He’s dazed by ancient technologies and architecture beyond comprehension, and heartsick with the glimpses of what he has lost and will lose again. _The people of Solheim sought to defy the Astrals and their will._ It’s wrong, he can barely articulate his desire in his head--but it drives him forward anyway, unerring as a fired bullet.

_I can’t let him go, even if..._

In the distance Noct is running up the face of the giant statue, inexplicably smiling despite her chains. Ignis quickens his pace, only for the world to tilt and throw him over the edge, taking him away from Noctis. Again.

* * *

 

The corridor ends, and he’s back right where he started. This is the real world outside Pitioss, where time marches pitilessly onward, and he’s a fool for chasing ghosts. There was never anything here for him to find. 

He sighs, taking in the view from his elevated position. The Rock of Ravatogh is still distinguishable against the muted sky, lit by the reddish, translucent formations that jut out of its mouth. Legend has it that the body of Ifrit is buried there--Ifrit who was betrayed, and would have burned down the entire world in the heat of his rage. A cold wind passes over him, and Ignis shivers, averting his eyes.

He’s eager to leave Pitioss behind, but it’s not a wise idea to force his weary body through a swarm of ravenous demons. Ignis sits and leans his back against the wall, curling one arm around his knees. He only intended a short rest, but oblivion comes quickly once his eyes close. 

In his dream, Noctis kneels by his side, one hand on his face, alive and glowing with vitality in a way he never had in life. His eyes are vividly blue, blue as the light of the Crystal.  “I’m sorry, Ignis,” he says. “I heard you, I promise. I wanted - but I couldn’t look back. Please forgive me.”

“Noct,” Ignis says, painfully, and stops. He takes his prince’s hand and kisses the fingertips, tenderly. “If I forgive you,” he says, “then forgive me as well when I tell you that I won’t give up until I must.”

Noct smiles, and breaks into a strained, but genuine, laugh. “It’s a deal.”

They sit together in companionable silence until the dream ends.

* * *

 

There’s something scratched into the surface of the wall, lines too uniform to be random that he feels with his fingers as he stands. Ignis turns his light on it in curiosity - a message that is the Solheim equivalent of “Congratulations, you’ve passed this fiendishly difficult test”, perhaps?

He lets out a startled laugh when he realizes - it’s Noct’s initials, he imagines, scored into the stone with the point of a dagger in a charged moment of victory. In another time, in another place, Ignis would have taken him to task for desecrating possibly sacred ruins, but now he can only smile helplessly, his chest filling with affection. Proof that Noct was here, lingers here still, leaving his mark on the world, and the people around him. As long as that remains, he is certain that hope too endures.

-end

**Author's Note:**

> Quick short fic due to not writing anything for a year and a half. Apologies for not making sense.


End file.
